Seize the Moment Podcast

On episode 268, we welcome Eileen Buckholtz to discuss her thirty one year career with the National Security Agency, the important contributions of women throughout its history, how they were often overlooked, the conflicting messages girls received from their communities, the career expectations for women coming of age in the US in the 1950s, the class action lawsuit that upended discriminatory p...

On episode 267, we welcome Saul Levmore and Ward Farnsworth to discuss how we make everyday decisions, the complexities of tipping, deciding who should pay for a first date, competing values and loyalties as sometimes expressed by a love/hate relationship with one's country, social norms and how they're created, disingenuous praise as a potential good, enthusiasm as a potential expression of genui...

On episode 266, we welcome Mark Schroeder to discuss why we tend to misunderstand each other so much when arguing, the difference between signal and noise, the fundamental attribution error and what philosophers mean by attribution, what addiction is, taking responsibility as a means of improving mental health, whether others know us better than we know ourselves, overestimating ill-will from othe...

On episode 265, we welcome Colin Marshall to discuss ethical persuasion, how it differs from debating, the importance of respecting others' life choices and taking them seriously, Colin's experience phone-banking during the last US presidential election, virtue signaling and bullying as barriers to persuasion, Daryl Davis and persuading people away from white supremacist beliefs, staying true to y...

On episode 264, we welcome Arlie Russell Hochschild to discuss Trump's appeal in rural America, 'the pride paradox' and shame being the natural result of believing you're completely in charge of your own destiny, how Pikeville, Kentucky addressed a white supremacist march, navigating political polarization and learning how to humanize each other, shame and blame as irrelevant to real but complex u...

On episode 263, we welcome J. Aaron Simmons and Benjamin McGraw to discuss the philosophy of heavy metal, the satanic panic and the Judas Priest trial, metal as an expression of liberty and individuality, the intellectual diversity in metal, challenging racist and misogynistic ideologies in the sphere, music as an expression of rebellion and critical thinking, the battle between reactionary and pr...

On episode 262, we welcome Mike McIntire to discuss American gun ownership, the Supreme Court's misinterpretation of the second amendment of the bill of rights, the proliferation of guns for both defense and conquest throughout American history, gun ownership as a symbol of responsibility and masculinity, the NRA's existential fear of gun reforms, the philosophical divide at the heart of the debat...

On episode 261, we welcome Ilan Stavans to discuss the historical incarnations of god, god as a symbol of both oppression and liberty, Moses's rebellion against god and how it symbolizes modern faith, god as an ineffable experience, why we continue to create god, militant atheism as a response to deep-seated hope for the existence of god, Jesus dying for the sins of Yahweh, morality without religi...

On episode 260, we welcome David Ost to discuss the philosophy of the red pill movement, the similarities and differences between red pill and fascism, why people are drawn to authoritarian figures, the rise of Trump, populism as an ideological framework for fascism, Soviet communism as the extreme end of the left's failures to improve lives, sports and worker's rights, and the New York Knicks as...

On episode 259, we welcome Ann Larson to discuss her experience working as a grocery cashier during the COVID-19 pandemic, the complex emotional and structural factors involved in professional success and failure, meritocracy as a simplification of economic outcomes, the multiple forms of labor involved in supermarket work, the difference between one's status and skillset, food waste at the expens...

On episode 258, we welcome David Samson to discuss sleep hygiene and the wellness industry, how we misunderstand the optimization of sleep, glorifying and idealizing ancestral societies, sleep's relationship with mental health, moving from sleeping in trees to communal "shells," sleep's importance in regulating brain health, the paleo gear and the optimal gear in sleep science, the trade-offs in s...

On episode 257, we welcome Christian B. Miller to discuss the growing honesty crises shaping modern society, the philosophical and psychological roots of dishonesty and self-deception, the impact of AI and deepfakes on our ability to trust reality, the rise of AI use and academic integrity concerns in education, how social media rewards performance over authenticity, the spread of misinformation a...

On episode 256, we welcome Gail Straub to discuss her work empowering women across the globe, being a civilian diplomat, not being taken seriously in Russia as an American Marxist, lessons about inner strength from traversing the Himalayan mountains, the complexity of political activism in China, diversity as a core component of peace, the elements of human nature uniting all of us, and what insti...

On episode 255, we welcome Jonathan Vigliotti to discuss the 2025 Palisades Fire, the systemic failures that caused and maintained it, the ethics of hiring private fire brigades, how climate change influenced the fire, the political neglect and flawed reasoning around effective management, fire safety standards as the bare minimum, bureaucratic collapse, Mayor Karen Bass's mistakes, incentivizing...

On episode 254, we welcome Aaron Poochigian to discuss his new translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Aaron's struggles with addiction and how the book helped him in recovery, suffering as stemming from interpretations of rather than facts about the world, meaning as stemming from virtue rather than reputation, learning to accept all of nature to manage suffering, applying the concept of '...

On episode 253, we welcome Christopher Mathias to discuss the meaning of fascism and what ANTIFA is, fascism's ideological roots in greed and domination, the Charlottesville protests, fascist masking and the threat of being charmed by appearances, whether we owe it to fascism to allow for open debates, whether fascists care about finding the truth, if it's possible to differentiate between conserv...

On episode 252, welcome Benjamin Saltzman to discuss the gesture of turning away, the shame and grief behind it, how it became a moral topic, turning away in art and Timanthes's lost painting of Agamemnon, Plato's tripartite concept of the soul and turning away as a mark of confusion, rigidity and steadfastness as signs of courage and character, cognitive flexibility and knowing when to turn away,...

On episode 251, we welcome Patricia Martin to discuss identity formation in the modern world, our preoccupation with external validation and why it's unsustainable in the internet age, Carl Jung's understanding of the persona and our tendency to perform, the persona and chronic self-doubt, socially prescribed perfectionism and the fog of self, physical practices to re-center oneself, and the impor...

On episode 250, we welcome Amy Nathan to discuss civil rights icon Sara Keyes Evans,  her own decision to not move to the back of a bus, the decades long legal battle that followed, the battle between federal and state laws regarding interstate travel for minorities, Sara's more measured and less aggressive stance on social justice, the values and temperament that were the foundation of her brand...

On episode 249, we welcome Jack El-Hai to discuss the Nuremberg trials and the recent film about them, the psychiatrist who analyzed Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas Kelley's motivations for doing so, whether Nazis were monsters and if being human makes them scarier, how the results of Göring's Rorschach test reveled a narcissistic personality, the foundation of evil, Kelley's stifled ambitions and why...

On episode 248, we welcome Dorothy Roberts to discuss the history of interracial marriage in the US, how it was used to help sustain Black slavery, Dorothy's resistance to and eventual acceptance of being biracial, her disagreements with her father (a fellow researcher) on the benefits of interracial marriages, defining race and why Nazis and white supremacists  both struggled to define whiteness,...

On episode 247, we welcome Lybi Ma to discuss the thought patterns we get trapped in, the differences between ruminating and deliberating, why avoiding and suppressing our emotions can make them feel more intense, challenging the negative narratives we create about our lives, why our brains are programmed for survival rather than happiness, why Freud was right, spotting cognitive distortions, the...

On episode 246, we welcome David Bather Woods to discuss the life and philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, how his father's suicide shaped his beliefs about suicide, suffering as the source of compassion, happiness as the negation of pain, Schopenhauer's anti-slavery sentiment, his difficult relationship with Marxist thought and its thinkers, whether writing about changing the world for the better c...

On episode 245, we welcome Michael Uebel to discuss the practice of equanimity, its similarities and differences from mindfulness practices, how perspective taking helps mitigate difficult feelings as in PTSD, how it can be used to help bridge political divides, shifting goals to less ambitious ones for greater equanimity, perspective taking and its influence on self-esteem, and psychoanalysis as...

On episode 244, we welcome Troyen Brennan to discuss the pitfalls of the US healthcare system, the fee-for-service model's implications for patient outcomes, primary care as a more viable alternative, Walmart's failed attempt to establish primary care clinics, Optum's contrasting success, how to incentivize primary care, AI streamlining prior authorizations, increasing government funding and ventu...